Roof vent panel

ABSTRACT

An extruded foam polystyrene sheet is formed into a roof vent panel for a sloping roof at the eaves. The panel has flanges and an offset wall and is formed into through troughs end-to-end which are divided by truncated triangular ridges extending from the offset wall. The ridge is reinforced by gussets and saddles which are formed as sets along the ridges. The gussets extend from the offset wall to the ridge side walls and the saddles connect the ridge side walls below the truncated apex of the ridge. The gussets on each side wall are spaced and paired with one of each pair at the end of a saddle.

This invention relates generally as indicated to a roof vent panel, andmore particularly to a low cost yet highly efficient vent panel for useon a sloping roof to assure unrestricted air flow from the soffit areapast ceiling insulation to an attic vent.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Buildings with pitched roofs usually have open and unheated attics.Insulation for the room below is usually provided by fibrous insulationabove the horizontal ceiling. If the insulation blocks airflow from thesoffit vents at the eaves to attic vents, usually at the pitch peak,heat loss at the eaves may occur and with freezing and thawingtemperatures, ice dams may form at the eaves causing roof leaks usuallyin the coldest of weather. In the summer, improper ventilation of theattic can lead to significant thermal inefficiency, excess humidity andother problems. It is accordingly desirable that proper ventilation fromthe lower eaves to the attic vents be maintained to avoid such heat andmoisture problems.

To achieve such venting, a wide variety of sheet-like products have beenused which are fastened to the underside of the roof between therafters. Such products may include flanges providing ease of fasteningand a spaced or offset wall forming open troughs extending end-to-end.It has been found that such products made from extruded foam polystyrenesheet have excellent break resistance and resist moisture so they willnot rot or deteriorate. Extruded polystyrene has greater strength thansimply expanded polystyrene such as bead board or sheet.

The lateral space of the trough or airway, however, creates a flexureproblem, particularly at the ends of the sheet. It has, accordingly,been found advantageous to provide a stiffening ridge along the centerof the trough end-to-end. However, when forming large extruded foamedpolystyrene sheet between precision matched metal dies, the formingprocess attenuates the sheet reducing the wall thickness of the sides ofthe ridge. This in turn lessens the compressive strength of the ridge.Also, particularly along the root of the base and at the apex of theridge, the corners are in effect creases, and with the reduced wallthickness of the ridge, such corners become a possible point of failure,particularly in handling and installation.

Accordingly, it would be useful to have a trough ridge from end-to-endof the panel where the corners or creases of the ridge were strengthenedand without significantly obstructing the airway through the trough oneach side of the ridge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A roof vent panel for a sloping roof is a relatively large elongatedpanel formed from extruded polystyrene foamed sheet. It has lateralflanges which facilitate the fastening of the panel to the underside ofa sloping roof at the eaves. An offset wall forms a trough between theflanges with side walls sloping to the flanges. The trough is divided bya generally triangular ridge which has a height equal to the depth ofthe trough. The ridge extends from end-to-end of the panel. The ridgeshortens the lateral span of the offset wall forming the trough and ineffect forms two side-by-side smaller, and stronger, troughs which areopen end-to-end of the panel. The triangular ridges are truncated andare formed such that all corners are obtuse angles. Although the sidewalls of the ridges have reduced wall thickness, they are reinforced atthe offset wall base corner or notch by relatively short open channelgussets formed slightly asymmetrically between the offset wall and ridgeside wall. The back of the gussets extends almost normal to an anglebisecting the obtuse angle between the offset wall and ridge side wall.The side walls of the gussets are splayed, and such gussets extend toabout one fourth the height of the ridge side wall. The gussets arepaired with respect to saddles formed in the truncated top of eachridge. The saddles in effect join the two ridge side walls at a heightof about one half the height of the side wall. Accordingly, for eachsaddle there will be four gussets arranged symmetrically. There may befour saddle and gusset sets spaced equally along the ridge, although thesaddle and gusset sets at the ends are fairly close to the end edge ofthe panel. The panel is in effect duplicated along its center to formtwo troughs, each divided by a ridge. An end-to-end perforation in themiddle of the panel provides for lateral separation in the event anentire panel will not fit between the rafters.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends the invention,then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claims, the following description andthe annexed drawings setting forth in detail certain illustrativeembodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but afew of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may beemployed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a roof vent panel in accordance with thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the ridge reinforcingstructure showing the saddle and gusset arrangement;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section taken substantiallyfrom the line 3--3 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top plan view of the saddle-gusset set ridgereinforcement as seen from the line 4--4 of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring initially to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a roof vent panel 10in accordance with the present invention. The panel 10 is formed from asheet of extruded foamed polystyrene. The panel is of substantial sizeand is elongated, being approximately twice as long as it is wide. Forexample, the panel may be over a meter in length and over half a meterin width. The panel is designed to be fastened to the underside of theroof at the eaves between the rafters so that the side facing the viewerin FIG. 1 is normally the top of the panel.

Reading from right to left in FIG. 1, the panel is formed with an edgeflange 12, a sloping lateral wall 13 which extends from the flange 12 tooffset wall segment 14 which extends parallel to but downwardly offsetfrom the flange 12. Next to the offset wall segment 14 is a triangularridge shown generally at 16 which extends from end-to-end of the panel.Next to the triangular ridge there is a further section of the offsetwall shown at 18, another transition wall 19 which terminates in acenter wall 20 which is in the same plane as the flange 12. The centerwall 20 is perforated throughout its length as indicated at 21. Theperforations may be simply scorings or actual holes, round orrectangular, to permit the panel to be divided longitudinally into twoequal parts. Whether the whole panel or half a panel is employed will ofcourse depend upon the spacing of the rafters. From the center wallperforation, the remaining half of the panel is a duplicate of the halfjust described including sloping transition wall 23, offset wall section24, triangular ridge 25, offset wall section 27, lateral transitionsloping wall 28, and fastening flange 30.

It is noted that the two triangular ridges 16 and 25 are truncated andprovided with a narrow flat apex as seen at 32 and 34, respectively.These apex portions of the ridges are designed to abut against theunderside of the roof, although not necessarily be fastened thereto.Accordingly, the flange 12, the apices 32 and 34, the center wall 20,and the flange 30 are all in the same plane. The same is true of theoffset wall formed by the offset wall sections 14, 18, 24, and 27.

It can now been seen that the ridges 16 and 25 divide the two sides ofthe panel into two equal side-by-side air troughs which extend from oneend of the panel to the other. Such air troughs are seen at 36 and 37 oneach side of the ridge 16. The ridge 25 divides the other side of thepanel into continuous equal air troughs 38 and 39. Because of theridges, the lateral span of the offset wall sections forming the troughsis reduced and pressure from beneath the panel is less likely to flexthe wall inwardly significantly restricting the passage of air throughthe air troughs. In assembly, fasteners are intended to extend throughthe flanges 12 or 30 and also through the perforated center wall 20, orhalf of the center wall if the panel is divided longitudinally.

Referring now to FIG. 3, it will be seen that in the forming process,walls at an angle to the original plane of the foamed polystyreneextruded sheet will be attenuated or of less thickness than wallsparallel to such sheet. Accordingly, the sloping side walls 42 and 43 ofthe ridge 16 will be of less thickness than, for example, the wallsections shown at 12, 14 or 18, for example.

To strengthen and rigidify the ridges, such ridges are formed withequally longitudinally spaced saddles shown generally at 46. Also,extending between the offset wall sections and the side walls of theridges, gussets shown generally at 48 in FIG. 1 are provided. While eachsaddle is of the same construction and each gusset is of the sameconstruction, it is noted that the gussets are arranged in pairs with agusset of each pair being positioned substantially transversely oppositethe end of the saddle. The pairs of gussets are also transverselyaligned on each side of the ridge. Thus, the saddle 46 seen in FIGS. 2,3 and 4, is provided with one pair of gussets seen at 50 and 51 on oneside of the ridge and another pair seen at 52 and 53 on the oppositeside of the ridge. The gussets are transversely aligned at the end ofthe saddle 46 and symmetrically arranged with respect to such saddle.

Since the structure of each gusset and each saddle is the same, only onegusset and one saddle will be described in detail. The saddle 46includes a horizontal wall 56 and splayed end walls 57 and 58. Thebottom wall 56 of the saddles extends between the ridge side walls 42and 43 as seen more clearly in FIG. 3, and they intersect the side wallsof the ridge at approximately half the height of the ridge. The splayedwalls 57 and 58 close the longitudinal ends of the saddle.

Each gusset includes a back wall 60 as seen in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, andsplayed side walls 61 and 62. The back wall 60 is not quite symmetricalin the notch 64 between the offset wall section 18 and the side wall 43of the ridge. This slight asymmetrical arrangement enables the back wallof the gusset to intersect the ridge side wall at a substantiallygreater distance from the notch than its intersection with the offsetwall section 18. Thus, the back wall of the gusset is more steeplyinclined than it would be were it symmetrical in the notch. The backwall of the gusset intersects the ridge side wall at about one fourththe height of the ridge or at about half the height of the saddle bottomwall. Accordingly, the gussets project only slightly into the airwaytroughs 36, 37, 38 and 39 formed by the roof vent panel. The gussetsbuttress the thinner side walls of the ridges and resist folding of thesheet material of the panel along the notch 64. The saddles alsobuttress the side walls of the ridges. The saddles also provide for airflow between the airway troughs, providing better air flow through thepanel while still maintaining the fibrous insulation normally employedaway from the underside of the roof which would tend to block such airflow.

The four gussets arranged around each saddle form a cooperatingstiffening structure which provides excellent rigidity to the panelwhile simplifying its overall structure. The paired gusset-saddlearrangements are spaced equally along the ridges and in the illustratedembodiment there are four such sets. It is noted, however, that the twosets at the ends are spaced fairly closely to the end of the panel sothat the panel is transversely reinforced quite close to its ends. Thisprovides increased stiffness and strength at the end where needed inboth handling and installation. With the splayed symmetrical side wallsof both the gussets and the saddles, it is noted that no fold or cornerin the structure of the panel approaches a right angle or even an acuteangle bend. All of the corners involved are at a significantly obtuseangle.

It can now be seen that there is provided a simplified roof vent panelwhich has continuous reinforcing ridges throughout its length, yet stillhas airway troughs open from end-to-end, such troughs being formed oneach side of a reinforced ridge.

Although the invention has been shown and described with respect tocertain preferred embodiments, it is obvious that equivalent alterationsand modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon thereading and understanding of this specification. The present inventionincludes all such equivalent alterations and modifications, and islimited only by the scope of the claims.

We claim:
 1. A structure sloping roof vent panel comprising a largeelongated panel of extruded foam polystyrene sheet having lateralflanges to facilitate the fastening of the sheet to the underside of asloping roof at the eaves, an offset wall spaced from said flangesforming an airway trough, and at least one generally triangular ridgeextending from said offset wall and open from one end of the vent panelto the other, said ridge having thinner side walls than said offsetwall, and formed gussets extending from said offset wall to said thinnerside walls of said ridge to reinforce and strengthen said panel sheet tomaintain unobstructed venting through said trough when installed.
 2. Avent panel as set forth in claim 1 including saddles in said ridgeconnecting the side walls of the ridge below its apex.
 3. A vent panelas set forth in claim 2 wherein said gussets are paired in sets of twoalong the ridge.
 4. A vent panel as set forth in claim 3 wherein saidpaired gussets are aligned transversely of the ridge.
 5. A vent panel asset forth in claim 4 wherein one gusset of each pair is at the end ofeach saddle.
 6. A vent panel as set forth in claim 5 wherein said gussetpairs and saddles are arranged symmetrically.
 7. A vent panel as setforth in claim 1 wherein each gusset includes a back wall and splayedside walls, the gusset back wall extending at an angle from the offsetwall to the ridge side wall.
 8. A vent panel as set forth in claim 7wherein said ridge side walls and said offset wall form a notch wherethey join and said gusset back wall is asymmetrically arranged in saidnotch between the offset wall and the ridge side wall, intersecting theridge side wall at a substantially greater distance from the notch thanits intersection with the offset wall.
 9. A vent panel as set forth inclaim 8 wherein said gusset back wall intersects the ridge side wall atabout one fourth the height of the ridge.
 10. A vent panel as set forthin claim 9 including saddles in said ridge connecting the side walls ofthe ridge below its apex.
 11. A vent panel as set forth in claim 10wherein said saddles include bottom walls extending between the ridgeside walls, said gusset back wall intersecting the side wall of theridge at about half the height of the saddle bottom wall.
 12. A ventpanel as set forth in claim 11 wherein said gussets are paired and saidsaddles and paired gussets are arranged symmetrically and equally spacedalong the ridge.